Escape by Carolyn Jessop with Laura Palmer

Escape

Listened to this in audiobook form
by Carolyn Jessop with Laura Palmer

I had started listening to this book about a week before authorities raided the Yearning For Zion Ranch (YFZ Ranch) in El Dorado, Texas. I wasn’t very far into it when I heard the first radio report of the raid. I quickly put two and two together and realized that the book I was reading (I call listening to an audiobook “reading” it) was in fact about what was quickly taking over the national news! And take over, it did.

This book, which is read by the very talented Ann Marie Lee, is the unabridged version from Audible.com I was hooked in the first five minutes. Jessop started the book with her harrowing late night escape from her cult home, along with her 8 children. Local police were part of the cult and if they had tracked her down, would have returned her to an environment of horrid abuse.

Carolyn was born into a 6th generation of polygamists. Growing up in a polygamist society was as natural to her as breathing air. At the age of 18, excited at the prospect of going to college–which is definitely not a common thing for women to be allowed to do in this cult–her father called her in for a meeting late one night. He informed her that in two days’ time she would be marrying one of his business partners. There was nothing she could do about it. There was no saying “no”.

It turns out that the man who asked for Carolyn’s hand in marriage had gotten her name wrong. It was Carolyn’s prettier sister he was interested in. But…he asked for “Carolyn” and once the Prophet had approved the deal, that was it. The day after Carolyn found out she was to become the fourth wife of a 55 year old man, she formally met him. He came over for lunch to “meet” her. What this meeting turned out to be was sandwiches in the living room while her father and he made the appointment for the marriage to take place in Salt Lake City. The rest of the time was spent talking business. He never talked to Carolyn, nor did he touch her. She was terrified.

The wedding went on as planned. She spent her two remaing days of “freedom” under the surveillance of her mother. She was made to sleep in her mother’s room at night to ensure that she didn’t run away as her sister had. That would be a disgrace to the family. She was married off to this man and sent to live with him. Her life quickly turned to hell.

I’ve read many comments on the internet where people question the abnormality of having plural wives. Some think it would be great from the woman’s point of view because, hey, you wouldn’t have to do the housework all by yourself–split it up evenly. Or how about the sex ? Some women would consider it a boon to split up the sex duties amongst several wives. In this instance the man never even bothered to take off his clothes while they did it. She eventually bore him 8 children and never once did they get naked together. Sex was something to be hated and endured, yet the wives fought to have it as much as possible with the husband because if they were having sex, that meant he favored them. And the favored wives have more power in the household. A good analogy is a pack of wolves sensing the weakest member of the pack and killing it off. A new, young girl marrying into a household that already has several wives is at a huge disadvantage.

This is the lot of the “celestial bride”: young girls, as young as 13, are given to men old enough to be their father or grandfather. One day they’re going to “school” (more on that in a bit) and a day later they’re being forced to spread their legs for an old man they may have never even met before. This is not “marriage”…this is child abuse and sex abuse. They have no idea that this is wrong because it’s all they’ve ever been exposed to. They have no television. They’re not allowed to read books from the outside world. They have no contact with the outside world. They’re raised to fear and abhor it. So they think this is all normal.

Think about a wife who’s suddenly told by her husband to build an extra room onto the house. As soon as she’s done with it a new young girl is brought into the household to make love to her husband, in the room that she’d just built. She’s not going to feel real friendly toward her and she does everything in her power to make life miserable. The women become, if not merely competitive with one another, downright enemies.

The so-called education system in the FLDS community is a farce. Their are from time to time escapees. Of these, the 15 and 16 year olds who’ve been tested typically come out in a 2nd to 3rd grade education level. The FLDS stance on education is simply that it is unnecessary beyond the basic reading and writing level. The girls are raised to become breeding stations and the boys are raised to work on the construction crews for the church. Which is how much of the income is made for the FLDS. They have contracting businesses, providing manual labor. They’re able to undercut bids on projects (thus winning a lot of them) because they have far fewer labor costs involved with their business–they use the boys for labor and don’t pay them. The church gets the money.

Let’s get back to the whole deal with old men getting a bunch of young girls as their wives. Most men in the church want as many wives as possible because that will win them a higher place in heaven. The Prophet is the one who decides who is going to marry whom. For men higher in the church echelon, the more wives they get. If a man is disfavored, he won’t get any. So, if there are men with 10, 20 wives (and there are!) it stands to reason that there must be a shortage of girls to go around. And there is.

To even up the numbers, many of the young men are ostracized from the community. Actually, that’s putting it mildly. What really happens is that they’re taken out to large metropolitan areas (typically Salt Lake City and Las Vegas) and dumped on the side of the road like dogs with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Keep in mind that these are teenage boys who have grown up knowing nothing but the FLDS community. They have no education to speak of. They’re raised to be terrified of the outside world. The only skill they may have is to be on a building crew. They have none of what you and I would call real life experience. Their families don’t want them back because The Prophet said they “must go”.

The name given to these boys by one of the rescue groups is “The Lost Boys”. And that, they are. Many of them end up as male prostitutes and drug addicts. If you want to read more about this please visit The Hope Organization’s website. It is full of heartbreaking stories.

Back to the book. Carolyn suffered terribly from the abuse he and his other wives doled out. She admits that she most likely would have stuck things out there for the rest of her life except that she feared for her children. Throughout fifteen years of marriage she slowly began to question her entire belief system in the church and whether it was truly right or not. She was lucky that her grandmother had instilled a sense of worth in her. Her grandmother is one of the very few people who have come from the outside world into the FLDS community. She married into it. During her childhood, Grandma helped insulate Carolyn from much of the abuse she otherwise would have endured. Once she died, there was no one to protect her. But those short years she had with Grandma in her life gave her a huge advantage: she knew that there was an outside world she could run away to. Which brings us right back to the beginning of the book where the story begins wtih the night she escaped from the community.

This is a scary story. It’s all true. And it’s a huge eye opener. I find it astonishing that we can live in the United States and still have this kind of abuse going on and nothing being done about it.

They’re making a movie

It’s been reported that Katherine Heigl is producing as well as starring in a major motion picture to be adapted from the book. I can’t find any further information on when it will be out but I am looking forward to it.